Thanks once again for the detailed information on the West Carpathians. When we arrived at the Neag family's house, we just knew two signs to communicate: rubbing our stomachs to show that we were hungry and mmmmmmh to indicate that the food was good. Without our Romanian-German dictionary we would not have had so much fun and laughter with the Neags. After 5 days we practically felt at home. It was even hard to say goodbye.

   But Romania cannot be described in words! In Romania everything is different to where we come from. You really have to experience it. In the 5 days, we visited the Scarisoara ice cave, the waterfall at Arieseni, the enormous landslide Groapa Ruginoasa and the highest mountain in the Bihor range (1843m). With the exception of the landslide, we were able to visit all of these sights on foot from where we were staying.

   As we were looking for wild caves, we continued our Romanian holiday in Padis. The campsite at Padis is situated in the middle of the cave region. We found lots of wonderful, wild, demanding caves. If you are planning a caving or walking holiday, it is important to buy the appropriate maps in advance (at www.transylvaniatravel.net/shop/).

   To find the caves, the "Zona Padis din Muntii Bihor 1:30000" is perfectly adequate. For a general overview of the West Carpathians, we can recommend the "Muntii Apuseni 1:200000". Both maps are from DIMAP. Unfortunately, 10 days were much too short to do this area justice. But we will be back!


   Best wishes from Tobi, Stefan